FGCU board briefed on 'new reality' of state funding

Left to right, Patrick Pierson, Director of Sports Information, Andy Enfield, former Florida State assistant coach and William Bradshaw, President of FGCU sit together during a press conference to announce the new FGCU men's basketball head coach. Florida Gulf Coast University held the press conference on March 30, 2011 at Alico Arena to announce FGCU's new men's basketball Head Coach Andy Enfield. Enfield was Florida State's former assistant coach, helping take them to a 23-11 season this year. Dave Balza FGCU's former head coach was let go March 3, 2011 jump-starting a national search for a new head coach nearly a month ago. Manuel Martinez/Staff

Question: What's the difference between a state-supported and state-assisted institution?

Answer: Somewhere between $3.3 million and $6 million.

As leaders at Florida Gulf Coast University mull over budget cuts filtering down from Tallahassee, they are also considering how their role as a state university is shifting.

Tuesday, President Wilson Bradshaw and Vice President for Administration and Finance Joe Shepard delivered budget updates to the FGCU Board of Trustees, telling the board FGCU's funding model was about to tip. The $40 million in general revenue funds received by the university this year could dip to between $34 million and $36.7 million next year, depending, respectively, upon whether a House or Senate version of the budget is passed.

"With either scenario, this will be the first time the general revenue will be less than 50 percent of our operating budget," said Bradshaw, calling it the new reality of state funding."

In essence, Shepard told the board, FGCU will be going "from a state-supported institution to a state-assisted institution."

FGCU has coped with similar funding decreases in years past, instituting hiring freezes, keeping pay relatively flat and increasing tuition, but staving off layoffs.

But Trustee Ed Morton pointed to the tenuous nature of cutting the budget at FGCU, which opened its doors in 1997.

"This is an embryonic -- still -- university," he said. "We've sustained a lot of cuts that were ill-advised. Really, you're cutting off nutrition to a growing child."

The difference this year will likely be made up in part with student tuition and fees, which are expected to continue their upward creep, after tuition rose 15 percent in each of the last two years.

Bradshaw said House and Senate budgets call for 5 percent and 8 percent tuition increases, respectively. As in years' past, FGCU will have the option of requesting an additional increase of up to 15 percent, as part of a state law that allows Florida universities to increase tuition until it reaches the national average of about $7,000. For Florida universities, the average of $4,350 charged per year is one of the lowest in the nation; at FGCU, tuition for students taking 30 credits in a year is $4,891, and $21,308 for out-of-state students.